Roanoke alumna awarded the Golden Apple, honoring top educators

Golden Apple Award recipient Melissa Carr '05, center, with other award recipients, including Susan Sine '90, a teacher at Cave Spring High School who received a Red Apple Award.

Award was the second that Melissa Carr '05 received in April.

Melissa Carr '05 has received the 2013 Golden Apple Award, the Roanoke County Public Schools Education Foundation's single highest honor presented to educators. Carr, a seven-year teaching veteran and Roanoke native, is a chemistry teacher at William Byrd High School.

At an awards ceremony April 17, Carr received a $3,000 check and the use of a brand-new 2013 ruby red Hyundai Sonata GLS for one year, courtesy of First Team Auto Mall. The car has custom license plates that read GR8TCR (Great Teacher).

Each year, teachers from across Roanoke County Public Schools are nominated by students, parents, co-workers and administrators to receive the Golden Apple Award. In addition to the Golden Apple, the foundation named three Red Apple winners, who each received $1,500, and a Green Apple Award winner. This year's Red Apple winners included Susan Sine '90, an algebra and AP Statistics teacher at Cave Spring High School.

The Golden Apple was the second award Carr received in April. At an April 11 banquet in New York, she was recognized by the Rochester Institute of Technology as one of the "Best of the Best." Carr was nominated by Noah Peregrino - a former student who is graduating from RIT this year - as a teacher he would honor as a model for others, a teacher who has profound influence on his career and a teacher who has been an inspiration in his life.